Business events planned

Wednesday

May 14, 2014 at 3:15 AM

PORTSMOUTH – The effect of increasing wealth inequality in the United States will be the focus of a talk Thursday, May 15, at 7 pm at the Portsmouth Library.

“For three decades we’ve been steadily reducing taxes on the wealthy,” according to Chuck Collins, a senior researcher at the Boston-based Institute for Policy Studies and founder of United for a Fair Economy. He helped lead a lively discussion at the library several years ago on the economy’s meltdown.

An expert on wealth inequality, Collins’ most recent book is “99 to 1.” He speaks widely on the impact of the greatest concentration of wealth in the country since 1928—a year before the beginning of the Great Depression.

Collins and Bill Gates Sr. organized more than 100 millionaires and billionaires who shared concerns with the nation’s growing wealth distribution discrepancies. The two also co-authored “Wealth and Our Commonwealth.” Both efforts were focused on maintaining the federal tax on inherited wealth.

According to the Pew Research Center, 1% of families in the United States received 11% of income in 1982, and more than 22% of income in 2012.

The May 15 discussion – “Wealth Inequality—How it Undermines Our Economy, Democracy and Health and What We Can Do About it” – is sponsored by the Seacoast Alliance for Democracy, Seacoast Coalition of Concerned Citizens, and Seacoast Occupy. It is free and open to the public.